Share this article
Bitcoin Struggles Below $50K After Crypto CEOs Take Center Stage
Bitcoin’s price popped briefly above $50,000 after Wednesday’s congressional hearing in Washington, but the momentum has faded.
Updated May 11, 2023, 6:30 p.m. Published Dec 9, 2021, 4:41 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
Bitcoin failed to hold above the $50,000 mark and was down 4.2% over the past 24 hours.
The largest cryptocurrency by market cap was looking weak on Thursday, a day after executives from six major crypto firms spoke before the U.S. Congress’ Financial Services Committee.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The hearing, which clocked in as one of the longest congressional hearings ever on crypto, lasted almost five hours. Nearly 40 lawmakers asked questions ranging from specific topics like stablecoin backing to broader areas like use cases in the crypto sector.
Bitcoin and Ethereum saw significant bids being stacked up following the hearing. However, that has since slowed down according to Matthew Dibb, Stack Funds’ chief operating officer.
Ether price
Ether , the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was trading at around $4,191 at press time, down 5% over the past 24 hours.
All eyes are on the ETH/BTC trading pair, according to Dibb. That’s the ratio between prices for ether and bitcoin, and it’s used to track the relative strength between the two cryptocurrencies.
The ratio rose even when the market crashed last weekend, rising by about 13% to reach a three and half-year high and register its best weekly performance since May.
Analysts pointed to several factors to explain the upward trajectory, one of them being the Ethereum blockchain’s EIP-1559 upgrade implemented in August. That change has effectively reduced the net new supply of ether from the Ethereum blockchain, and it appeared to help ETH/BTC make gains in a risk-off environment.
ETH/BTC ratio
“ETH/BTC is showing a huge amount of outperformance since the start of November,” Dibb said.
Dibb said if that trend continues, traders can expect the ETH/BTC ratio to hit 0.10 in the first quarter of 2022. The ratio is now at 0.8.
For altcoins, XRP was up 3% on the day, Terra’s LUNA by 0.19% and BNB was down 2.11%, according to data source Messari.
In traditional markets, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open in New York, and European equities edged down as investors took into account new restrictions to battle the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Coreweave stock gains 9% on fresh $2 billion Nvidia investment
Already an investor in CoreWeave, Nvidia last September had agreed to purchase $6.3 billion of computing services from the AI infrastructure provider.
What to know:
- CoreWeave shares jumped about 9% in pre-market trading after Nvidia invested another $2 billion in the AI-focused cloud company.
- The new funding is intended to help CoreWeave expand to more than 5 gigawatts of AI-dedicated data centers by the end of the decade.
- The deal deepens a yearslong collaboration in which Nvidia and CoreWeave will align on hardware, software and data center strategy, and test CoreWeave’s Mission Control resource-scheduling platform for potential integration into Nvidia’s ecosystem.
Top Stories
